Toddler

Our toddler information and articles will help you to turn these years from the terrible twos and threenage years to the terrific twos and threes. Whether you are looking for information on tantrums, sleep problems, hitting, biting or introducing a new baby - we've got it covered.

Introduction to Baby Led Potty Training

Baby-led potty training is the art of following your baby’s natural rhythms, to help them use a potty. And you can start from the very day they’re born.

Baby-Led Potty Training – FAQ’s

When baby-led potty training is informed and supported, our toddlers can gain their independence with a wonderful parent-child bond completely in tact. And that bond is all the stronger because their parents responded so well to their needs early on in their little lives.

A Mother’s Account of Why She Believes in Gentle Parenting

Why do I believe in gentle parenting? Because I have been lucky enough to reap the benefits of the seeds I have sewn and there is no greater feeling that realizing you have helped mould a human being you would be proud and honoured to know, even if she wasn’t your child.

The Importance of Playful Parenting

Playful Parenting helps with the toughest aspects of parenting: tantruming toddlers, biting preschoolers, anxious third-graders, out-of-control preteens. Playfulness resolves our battles over getting dressed and ready in the morning, soothes our frazzled nerves at the end of a long day, and restores family harmony.

What to do When a Toddler Bites, Hits, Shoves or Throws

The easiest and most obvious way to deal with hitting, biting, shoving and throwing in toddlers is to look for the cause of the behaviour. Once you identify triggers a good first step is to try to avoid these as much as possible. Importantly consider any emotional cues – often what we deem as naughty and violent behaviour from toddlers is actually a cry for more attention, unconditional love and connection from us.

Six Steps To Work Towards Gentle Parenting

As adults we command respect from our children, and other adults, on a daily basis. We expect to be treated in a certain way, we expect others to take our thoughts, rights and beliefs into account in all dealings with us. If a child in particular shows us a lack of respect we are quick to pull them up on it (especially if they are tweens or teens!), yet do we afford our children the same priviledge?

Time Out or Time In?

They don’t need ‘Time Out’, they need ‘Time In’. We should see their behaviour as their way of saying “mum, dad – I’m feeling overwhelmed right now, I can’t stop doing this and I need your help to calm me and help me to control myself”. Time out is exactly the very opposite of the response they need from us.

The Problem with Rewards & Sticker Charts

When you start to dig deeper into the psychology of rewards, such as sticker charts, you very quickly begin to realise that there is a large amount of science that refutes their use, claiming they are ineffective. Not only do these types of rewards lack in convincing evidence of efficacy, they can also cause more problematic behaviour in the future.

Starting Daycare

Perhaps the most important thing to really think about when you need your child to be in daycare is to pick the right setting and right person for them. As a general rule under three year olds do better with ‘one on one’ homebased childcare such as childminders and nannies. It is a mistaken belief that babies and toddlers “need to socialise” with other children of their age, this simply isn’t true.

What to do When Gentle Parenting Isn’t Working

Gentle parenting is hard, it is an investment, an investment into your child’s future as well as your own and those that will follow down the generations, but it’s not quick fix and it’s not easy. Gentle parenting also involves a long hard look at yourself and the way that you behave and indeed the way that you were parented – this introspection can be perhaps the hardest and most painful part of all, but in many ways it is the most necessary.